Wooplaw Community Woodland, the first in Britain.Wooplaw has flourished as a community organisation for over 25 years. It offers a lot but needs active interest and support .
It is 55 acres, has four distinct areas, several buildings, ponds, a stream, paths, 3 marked trails, sculptures and a whole load of imagination. Find out more in some of the other tabs.

Try out the new, free WoopLore app. This downloads to your smartphone and lets you listen to stories about wooplaw as you walk through the woods. Once on your phone you don’t need a phone signal to hear them, useful at Wooplaw.

What happens at Wooplaw?

Wooplaw is open to all comers. Many come to the woods just to enjoy them, to walk around, to listen to the bird chorus, to visit the wildlife ponds, or picnic at the Log Cabin or the thatched Roundhouse.
Anyone interested in the conservation of the environment will find Wooplaw an inspiration. Visitors have come from all over the country, as well as from other more distant parts of the world, and have gone away with ideas for setting up community woodlands in their own home areas.

We have an event on the last Sunday of EVERY month. You can see them all on the Events page.
We’ll do a guided walk around all the woods as well so if you want to find out more about the woods just turn up. Ideal if you’re just discovering Wooplaw.

There are regular visits from schools who bring their children to Wooplaw to enjoy pond-dipping, mini-beast hunting or learning and improving tree identification skills.

Also, from time to time, Wooplaw acts as a venue for training course in rural skills and for a wide variety of events – which have ranged from our regular Halloween and Christmas days for children, to ‘art in the forest’ events and conducted wildlife walks.

YOU CAN HELP KEEP IT ALIVE

If you’ve enjoyed Wooplaw and would like it to keep flourishing then join in and help.

Being involved can be a lot of fun and keep you involved. So, if you think you might like to help or would like further details, just contact us or phone Bob on 01578 730327

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What are Wooplaw Community Woods?

Wooplaw Woods is an area of woodland that is dedicated to community use. That means it is there for people like you to visit whenever you like.

Within Wooplaw there are four distinct areas –Axehead Wood, Big Wood, Easter Park and Gullet Wood which lies within easy walking distance on the Lauder to Galashiels road. [see map]

At the moment, there is a mixture of hardwood trees and conifers. The long-term aim is to harvest most of the conifers and replant them with hardwood trees, thereby adding to the wildlife potential of Wooplaw Woods.

Who owns Wooplaw?

Wooplaw Woods are owned and managed by Wooplaw Community Woodlands – a charitable organisation run entirely by volunteers who believe it is important to promote woodland culture and keep traditional woodland skills alive.

Our aim is to manage the woods for the benefit of the local community – in particular education, training, recreation, and the sustainable production of forest products. That includes providing a year round programme of events aimed at promoting a woodland culture, making the woods available as a free venue for other organisations to run events associated with music, arts, woodland skills, wildlife studies and other cultural studies, and also providing completely open access for members of the local community.
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Wooplaw Events

Enjoy a walk around Wooplaw to get some fresh air, spot the local wildlife and to work off your Christmas feasts! We’ll leave from the Axehead Carpark at 10:30 and do the three marked trails, each of which takes about 30 minutes so you can join us for as long as you like then head [...]